I am a lover of Lovecraftian terror, so when I received an ARC through NetGalley with a giant sea monster I was excited. My familiarity with Lovecraft's short story, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth", definitely colored my reading. Set in 1966, Harlan Bass, a reporter for the local newspaper, is investigating the death of his high school girlfriend, Didi Wilton. Was she murdered? Who did it? Who is trying to frighten him from finding the truth?

Without giving too much away, the mystery had some things that I guessed early on and a few surprises which is a good mix. As a Lovecraftian horror, I did like a few to the changes from the original story.

The ocean hugs hard.... Yes indeed. And this book HITS hard. I've never quite read anything like this, but I really enjoyed it. It won't be my last encounter with Eric Avedissian!

Thank you to NetGalley and Shadow Spark Publishing for an eARC copy of The Ocean Hugs Hard by Eric Avedissian.

In the Ocean Hugs Hard, set against the backdrop of Surfside City, New Jersey in 1966, Eric Avedissian crafts a gripping narrative of a classic noir mystery with the ambiance of H.P Lovecraft's eldritch horror ambiance. The novel follows Harman Bass, a young reporter trying to make a name for himself in the competitive world of journalism in a small, tourist town.

Harman's life takes a dramatic turn when the body of a former high school girlfriend, now a prominent beauty queen, is discovered on a local beach. What initially seems like the opportunity of a lifetime to prove his mettle quickly spirals into a dangerous and personal investigation. As Harman delves deeper into the case, he encounters resistance from the authorities and discovers a hidden darkness lurking within the seemingly idyllic resort tow.

I really appreciate the way that Eric Avedissian builds tension throughout the story. It starts little by little, in the most unexpected ways and even though you have a slight idea of which eldritch horror may have been involved it never really shows its hand and I do enjoy that. Which may not be a popular opinion as the monsters always come out eventually. I also enjoy the fact that this was based in the 60s, as eldritch horror tends to stick to the 20s - 50s and it is even more unusual as Surfside City is certainly more sunny and touristy while most eldritch horrors are not. I will say that I agree with other readers when it comes with the length. I do wish it was a bit shorter than it was, it certainly didn't have to be 300 pages. This was my first book by the author and I'd certainly read another.

Confession: I don't usually pay much attention to blurbs, and instead rely many on my own 'vibes' of whether to pick up a book, however this byline of The Ocean Hugs Hard is perfect:

"THE OCEAN HUGS HARD is a mystery with the salty whiff of the ocean, a tinge of nostalgia, and a dollop of mind-shattering eldritch horror."

To start with the nostalgia, Ocean Hugs did have a rather strange approach. Its not just set in the 60s (and captures that well), the whole style of writing is quite old-school. It could be judged as being a little 'telly' but it somehow works, an oddly earnest and direct style of narration that fits with the era and the story.

Second the balance of mystery and eldritch is again quite strange and original. Initially I was actually having second thoughts because Ocean Hugs takes a while to get into the story, and the pacing remained somewhat taunting rather than direct even towards the final act. Another old-school type approach which I ended up enjoying quite a bit, and was different from the fast-pace that many modern books demand.

An unusual narrative choice was to have the MC ACE/Asexual. It was a significant character plot point for Harmen but wasn't tossed into the narrative as some sort of storyline barrier to overcome or part of the 'curse' of the eldritch goings on. That said the character point fit in well with the story subtly but not in any explicit way.

Finally a point about the eldritch horror elements, due to the pacing it might have not fitted in as well as some readers might like, there is certainly a lot of final explanation (as everything is so mysterious there is a lot of info to be delivered at the end) and it doesn't make the story fall flat but it sits somewhere between a typical complete insanity disaster of a cosmic horror and a happy ending of a mystery thriller - the book didn't leave me with any particular feeling other than 'oh that was a thing' not a bad thing by any stretch, just a thing.

Ended up feeling like everything took a little too long to get through, definitely didn't need to be a book over 300 pages long and could have gotten away with less of a page count and fewer lulls. Just felt a tad slow to me.

The Ocean Hugs Hard is a supernatural mystery set in a seasonal beach town.

I had a lot of fun reading this. Often, attempts at this sort of retro reporter dialogue make me gag but Avedissian ably handles it.

I found the inclusion of an asexual character really interesting for this era. I don’t know that this aspect of the character is examined enough for us to truly “get it” and I wanted to hear more about their experience.

This book wasn't at all what I expected. It dragged in spots but overall, it did keep me reading. Intriguing premise but I didn't feel it gave me what I wanted in the book.

HP Lovecraft meets Raymond Chandler in this hard boiled novel about a journalist investigating mysterious deaths and j the Jersey Shore in the 1960s. It starts intriguingly enough but as it goes on and get weirder and weirder, I was truly sucked into this story!